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Description: Karl Briullov (1798-1877)
Prince Oleg at the gates of Constantinople
signed, inscribed indistinctly and dated 'Briuloff/Roma 1827/...' (on the reverse)
pencil, ink and grey wash on paper
8 1/8 x 10½ in. (20.7 x 26.7 cm.)
Executed in 1827

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Exhibited: Paris, Galerie de la Scala, 101 Masterpieces, Russian Graphic Art 1790-1920, March - April 1999, no. 10.

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Published: I. Bocharov, Iu. Glushakova, Karl Briullov. Ital'yanskie nakhodki, Moscow, 1984, pp. 179-182, illustrated p. 181.
Exhibition catalogue, 101 Masterpieces, Russian Graphic Art 1790-1920, Galerie de La Scala, London, illustrated p. 72, no. 10.

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In 907 Russian Prince Oleg took over the greatest city of the medieval world Constantinople. In the 19th century this first important victory of Russian military force was celebrated in the years following the 1812 Napoleonic war. Your name is heralded and victorious, Your shield is over the gates of the City of the Tsars, wrote Alexander Pushkin in his Song of the Wise Oleg.

On 9 December 1823 in his letter to the Society for Encouragement of the Arts Bruillov mentioned his idea to create a large-scale work on the subject of Russian history: I have chosen the following subject: Prince Oleg besieged Constantinople and after entering the city hanged his shield above its gates as a symbol of his victory. The present lot is the single and unique known study for this monumental painting, which was conceived during Briullov's Roman period but unfortunately never realised.